Chiefs rely on strong pitching this postseason

The West Ouachita Chiefs travel to Tioga on Friday for the first of a Best-of-three series in the quarterfinals of the LHSAA Class 4A baseball playoffs.(Photo: EMERALD MCINTYRE/ THE NEWS-STAR)Buy Photo

“The biggest issue here is our pitchers have to go out and throw strikes, and then we have to be sound defensively,” Thomas said. “Tassin and Street and (Luke) Honeycutt have pitched well for us all year and (Zach) Watson has pitched well as a closer for us. Our pitchers have confidence in our defense and that has been key.”

Thomas has no delusions that Tioga will be an easy out in Game 1 Friday at 7 p.m. or at any time in this Best-of-three series. The coach does know his team will have to take advantage of chances to score when they get them.

“From what I know about (Tioga), we both have good pitching,” Thomas said. “You have to score when you get the chance.”

Thomas does not believe his team is focused too much on what did, or did not happen, last year in the playoffs, the Chiefs (22-13) are just excited for another chance to play playoff baseball.

“We wish we were at home of course, like everybody does,” Thomas said. “Tioga is good and a sound baseball team that does a great job. This is a new team and we are excited about being here. Our guys have been through a lot of adversity with the weather throughout the year and missed practice time and that type of thing. They spent a lot of time pulling tarps off the field. It wears on you physically and mentally. This team has been through that kind of adversity probably more than any team I have coached before, but they have handled it well and we are excited to play (at Tioga).”

Connect with Cody on Twitter @cfutrellTNS or via e-mail cfutrell@thenewsstar.com